woe

Meanings

Noun

• Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness.
• Calamity, trouble.
• A curse; a malediction.

Adjective

• Woeful; sorrowful

Interjection

• An exclamation of grief.

Origin

• From Middle English wo, wei, wa, from Old English wā, wǣ, from Proto-Germanic *wai, whence also Dutch wee, German Weh, weh, Danish ve, Yiddish וויי. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wáy. Compare Latin vae, Albanian vaj, French ouais, Ancient Greek οὐαί, Persian وای (Turkish vay, a Persian borrowing), and Armenian վայ.